Remember THUB2026 from this year? My little adventure tracing Hungary’s borders, taking TW560 through ten countries, crossing mountain passes, driving some rather questionable roads and generally enjoying myself for 3,162 km? Well, as some of you may recall, things didn’t go entirely to plan in Romania.
On the Transalpina, one of Romania’s most beautiful mountain roads, I encountered a stretch of road that was less beautiful and considerably less pleasant to drive on. The surface was dreadful. And TW560, being a 26-year-old vehicle with 26-year-old components, decided that enough was enough.
Or, more precisely, its rim decided that it had had enough.
What followed was one of those adventures that make travelling with a TWIKE memorable/interesting. Stranded in the Romanian countryside, I eventually found myself at the workshop of a local aluminium welder who, with a forklift, a generous amount of aluminium and a rather pragmatic approach to engineering, managed to put the rim back together again.
It was my trusted mechanic Andi from Ksenotek had suggested this as a possible way to solve this problem. His reasoning was straightforward: at least the next cracks would appear somewhere other than where the previous ones had been welded!
And so, after a surprisingly short repair session, TW560 was back on the road. I lowered the tyre pressure considerably, adjusted my expectations and continued my journey. I made it home, and the Romanian repair had done exactly what it needed to do.
If you missed the story, you can read all about it here: THUB2026 – Day 4 – Ranca – Ramnicu Valcea and THUB2026 – Day 5 – Râmnicu Vâlcea – Brașov.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the end of the story.
Fast forward another 1,000 km or so. I’m driving towards Zurich and enjoying another perfectly ordinary TWIKE journey when I started to hear a noise that I recognised all too well.
You know that feeling when your vehicle makes a noise and your brain immediately starts running through a list of possible expensive consequences? Well, this was one of those moments. Except that I didn’t really need to run through the list. I already knew what it was likely to be.
I stop and inspect the rim.
And lo and behold: more cracks. The Romanian welding had bought me another 1,000 km of driving, but the rim had clearly decided that retirement was overdue.
There is a lesson in all of this, of course. I have written before about the importance of keeping an eye on your rims. They are not exactly the most glamorous part of a TWIKE, and unless something goes wrong, most of us probably don’t spend much time thinking about them. But they do take a considerable amount of punishment, particularly on the sort of roads I tend to seek out.
So, as I keep telling other TWIKE owners: check your rims often. Especially before setting off on a longer adventure. A few minutes of inspection can save you a rather inconvenient amount of time, money and logistical creativity somewhere in the middle of Romania.
In this particular case, I was fortunate. About ten years ago, anticipating that sourcing some of the less common TWIKE parts might become increasingly difficult, I had bought a small stash of old-new stock rims.
Over the years, that little stash has slowly dwindled. One rim here, another there, and now we’re down to the last two. I suppose this is what happens when you keep driving a vehicle that has been out of production for decades. You don’t just consume spare parts; you consume your spare parts supply!
Anyway, one of those remaining rims was retrieved from storage, loaded into the car and brought out for its next assignment.
Time to visit Ksenotek.
Now, driving a TWIKE with a cracked rim is not something I’d recommend. So the journey to Andi had to be undertaken rather gingerly. Very gingerly, actually. I took it easy, avoided anything resembling a pothole and generally treated the TWIKE as if it were made of particularly expensive porcelain.
Andi, as usual, was ready to help. I’ve been taking TW560 to him for many years now, through its rebuild, its numerous upgrades, the countless little repairs and the regular maintenance that comes with owning a vehicle that has accumulated quite a few kilometres and birthdays.
There is something reassuring about having someone who knows your vehicle almost as well as you do. Andi has seen TW560 in pretty much every conceivable state: completely dismantled, being rebuilt, being upgraded and, occasionally, arriving with something that really shouldn’t have been allowed to continue rotating.
This time, the job was relatively straightforward. The old rim came off, the new-old stock one went on, everything was checked and tightened, and before long TW560 was back on its three wheels again.
And there it was: a perfectly respectable, shiny new-looking rim. Quite a contrast to the rather sorry-looking remains of its predecessor!
And just like that, another little chapter in TW560’s ongoing maintenance history comes to an end.
Looking at the new rim, you’d never know what its predecessor had been through. No evidence of the Romanian countryside, no sign of the welding, no indication of the rather undignified noises that accompanied its final kilometres. Just a nice, clean wheel, ready to do its job.
Of course, there is a slightly sobering thought behind all this. These little parts are getting harder to find. My stock of rims is almost exhausted, and TW560 isn’t getting any younger. At some point, I’ll have to think about what happens when the last of these spares has been used up.
But that’s a problem for another day.
For now, TW560 is looking good, the new rim is fitted, and I’m ready for whatever comes next. This year’s adventure took me through ten countries, across some wonderful mountain roads and into a few situations I hadn’t quite planned for. That’s part of the fun, I suppose.
Next year, there will be new roads to discover, new places to visit and, undoubtedly, a few more things to fix along the way.
Where will TW560 take me next?
I haven’t quite decided yet. But I’m already looking forward to finding out.